Why So Gentle?
by Artificial Dreams
Summary: When day turns to night, thoughts turn into questions. When you find yourself capable of standing on your own, is it not so strange to be confused when someone treats you like glass? Kouji, why so gentle? Koukuya oneshot.


**Disclaimer**: Digimon Frontier, and all it's characters, belongs to Toei Animation. This idea was spawned by Puppeh's, "Enigma" and thanks to encouragement from GemmaniGirl it was completed. The beta-reading was done by Solange MacLeod, so thank her for fixing this POS. Enjoy.

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Night was always so wonderful: sweet and thoughtful, ending a day and urging nocturnal critters to wake as those of the day prepared to rest. Sometimes during the fall, two teenagers would travel out to the country to enjoy the wonders of the night in the center of nowhere but still close enough to civilization for comfort. The days would be lukewarm, with colorful leaves flittering in the breeze. Despite the cool air splaying against hug - and kiss - heated skin, the surroundings remained warm. Akin to the sun beating in the sky, the throbbing life of this little world, summer's green leaves on the trees melted away into the warm colors of yellows, reds, and oranges.

The grass was a soft hue of golden brown, evenly trimmed in the yard of the small cottage, but still swayed left to right in a slow dance with the wind. The brown tree trunks matched with the bright red, orange, and yellow leaves that would slowly fall from their boughs. Unlike the cooler colors of blue, purple, and green, there was not a sense of loneliness; simply a filled sensation, as though emptiness did not exist and never would. The feelings that rose from within at the sight was enough to cast aside anything negative within, encouraging love, hope, and sentimentality to stream out of the heart. Not even under an endless blue sky, every now and then dotted with white puffs trying to dignify themselves enough to be called 'clouds,' could the sensations be lost.

When the sun set away into that world of resting plants preparing for the cold winter of mere shades, the late air reflected the sky empty of a heart which hid for the night. When the moon was not new, it hovered proudly in the sky as a reminder that the world was not yet dead. The light it gave off was enough for the earth to understand it was still alive and thriving, only wavering in its existence when that moon decided it required rest just as the sun did. And in these fall nights when the clouds chose to perch elsewhere far from the cottage, stars cried in the sky - glittering tears of all those unshed from the eyes of every soul, no matter how true or deceitful it may have been. Lingering on the cheek of a deep blue sky, almost so infinite it becomes black. Though a mind is only capable of comprehending an end, for that is what it understands best. Thus the blue is still seen in this darkness, stopping an absolute shade from dominating a color to where it no longer exists.

Dark purple clouds outlined in pink, with the vast emptiness an orange with splatters of gold dotting it, lit up the sky. The trees joined the light show, basking in the setting sun with their fall leaves mimicking the colors of the heart: warm, beating; vibrant and alive, despite clinging to their parent's boughs as they hovered over their deathbed. In this area of isolation and views powerful enough to take any person's breath away, there was only one little cottage with this particular view; and just as there was only one little cottage, there were only a select amount of eyes watching in half-lidded wonder.

On the bench outside of this small abode sat two males, one kicking his legs slowly back and forth, making it swing. The other rested his head on the kicking one's shoulder and let his feet drag. It was quiet; the only sounds that of nature and slow breathing. The lower the radiant sun sank due to its slumber needing form, the quieter the area became. The colors were now simply that of blue hues, purples, tints of reds, and a sliver of orange. Clouds were a steel blue, still managing to stand out against this twilight sky. Small bits of stars made themselves known, but those lying down to sleep never noticed them telling their secrets of sorrow into the atmosphere. After the sun fully set and the moon began it's rise, the respectful silence of the end of one day was forgotten as it became replaced by the sounds of a night to celebrate how glorious this past day had been. Its loss would not be mourned, for then the night would be lost as well.

A strong whistle pierced through the night's chatter and music, the first sign of human life revealed through tongue rather than physical body. It had come from the pursed lips of the one kicking his feet back and forth in a slow rhythm, black hair swaying as the bench moved with the motions of his legs. The brunette was the one with his head rested on the other's shoulders, eyes half-lidded in a content drowsy state. Mahogany eyes were partially hidden beneath his eyelashes, thoughts playing inside the owner's mind as clearly as the other male's whistle. Curiosities wrestled within, questions appeared from their dormant states as the wonders of nature awoke them with sweet fumes of fall.

Quiet ponderings that had plagued the brunette's mind at night during sleep, of the issues of a reality that he lived in -- he could not think about them when anywhere outside of his dreams. These inquiries… these thoughts… this deep need inside to know, to find out why. To understand, to finally get an answer he had sought for so long but never received - all because he had yet to ask. Slowly closing his eyelids fully, he breathed in a scent of country. The whistle slowly faded away, the darker-haired male regaining his breath as he gently rested his head on the brunette's, slowly shutting his eyes as well. Snaking pale arms around a small waist next to him, he pulled the slightly smaller male closer to him. Nuzzling the brown hair, the thoughts within the one being snuggled retreated away, melting in the warm hold of the other.

"Kouji…?" the brunette whispered, moving closer to the warm body that was holding him and still swinging the bench.

"Mmm?" The raven-haired male ceased his nuzzling, and let once ice-blue eyes, now melted into an ocean blue, gaze down at closed mahogany ones.

"Does it feel a little chilly out here?" the brunette asked softly, opening his eyes to look up at the other.

"Why? Are you cold, Takuya?" Kouji asked, blinking, and his eyes furrowed slightly in concern.

"No… uhm, so! What are we doing tonight?" Takuya asked, changing the subject from his initial question.

"Not much, I guess… we can watch a movie or something if you want," Kouji mumbled, eyes blinking again, still confused by the strange words and actions of his significant other. As a precaution however, his hold tightened on the brunette and pulled him closer, protectively.

"Or something…" Takuya repeated softly, his eyes gazing distantly out into the steep night of stars twinkling reminders of the question that continued to slip his mind only to hauntingly return later as though a cruel ghost. The words just spoken by his lover repeated in his mind, and the clenched hold didn't go unnoticed either. It was so strange… how cautiously chosen the raven-haired male's words were, and yet spoken so lazily as though no real thought went into them. But the brunette knew there was some depth to them, from when the two first got together. He smiled softly to himself, recalling how Kouji would always hesitate before saying something to him with a questioning look. Progressively the blue-eyed one appeared to get over his shyness, but from start until now the brunette really doubted if that's what it really was.

"Yeah?" Kouji asked, his voice distant, staring down at the other with patient eyes, his facial features soft. He appeared to be expecting an answer, and his indifferent appearance gave way that whatever it was it didn't matter to him. All that mattered was that it was what his brunette wanted. He even didn't mind if the other wanted to go off and rob a bank, so long as he was happy. Unless… unless it involved the breaking up. Then Kouji would just shatter into nothing. That was quite possibly the only suggestion for the brunette to make that he could never accept.

"Why can't we just… talk? It's a lovely night," Takuya whispered, gazing up at the stars high above them. They twisted and turned without ever moving, rippling high above as though a roll of the ocean waves against black grains. He closed his eyes, mahogany eyes hidden from the droplets above that were eternally silent – a permanent denial of conversation from all its surroundings. The giant stars, mothers and fathers forbidden to speak with their children, watched the birth of their baby planets that never actually held life. Human eyes marveled at how despite all this they burned brightly, it was inspiring just to appreciate another's tone, another's voice.

"All right," Kouji agreed, resuming a soft and slow nuzzle in the other's brown mass of hair. Talking sounded nice; they hadn't really had a proper conversation in a long while. It was a nice difference, and Kouji was almost surprised when the brunette suggested it. But then it didn't startle him enough to cease his gentle affections, and so it wasn't too alarming. Sniffing the other's silken hair he sighed, smelling the combination of honey shampoo and rain forest incense. The raven-haired male couldn't honestly figure out where that spice of incense came from, but he didn't complain. It had a comforting scent to it, a scent of wild, domesticated tropics. How contradictory, but still, so wonderful.

"Hey, that tickles!" Takuya laughed lightly, squirming in the other's hold as he felt the surreal sensation of the other sniffing him. The once tight grip loosened, allowing the brunette more freedom of movement but they lingered there still in case the actions resulted in Takuya nearly falling off of the swing bench. The pale arms wrapped around the covered tanned waist were reassuring phantoms, ghosts speaking in low murmurs to the body they held that no matter what they would never let it get hurt. No matter what, not even if the other fell when no one was there to catch him.

The admittance of the strange feeling impending upon the brunette's head led to an encouraged raven-haired one, turning to slowly move his head to rest behind Takuya's left ear and snuffling him behind it. He managed to elicit a small squeak, and more squirming from the other as he tickled that spot around the brunette's ear before moving to just barely nibbling the cartilage on the outside. The small movements in what began as feeble attempts increased, now with Takuya borderline flailing as he tried to escape with a maraschino cherry red blush on his tan cheeks. Kouji couldn't help but grin, his grip holding fast. Sometimes the brunette was just irresistibly cute, he couldn't help but play the sudden cruel joke on him. In his mind, someone had to be insane to not find the various antics of his love downright adorable – especially when he blushed.

In his musings as he continued to cautiously nibble on Takuya's ear while the other squiggled around trying to get away, making all kinds of strange little sounds as he did so. Not once did Kouji's hold lessen, but at the same not once did the brunette even almost fall off of the bench swing, even if it was half-swaying, jerking around from the two in their strange match between tickling kisses and embarrassed determinations to escape them. Not far from the lively porch, a mejiro bird stood, hopping along the branch to its nest. When the camellia blossoms on the tree bloomed they were such lively birds, but for now they were either preparing for the incoming winter or the long travel south. It didn't matter what the bird chose, it was how it implemented its decisions.

"H-hey… I thought we were going to talk," Takuya finally whined, slumping in the other's arms as a final act of submission. He wasn't giving up, he was just worn down and plotting his vengeance for later that night. In this the brunette noticed something very strange, very peculiar. Somehow, throughout all of that, Kouji still held him close; even stranger, despite Takuya's own rough actions, not once did the other handle him in any other way than a person holding their most precious gem would. That thought made him (Takuya) blush more fervently, unsure how to understand this unusual discovery. Yet, it wasn't strange. It had always been a tendency of Kouji's to be so cautious with him. As though at any given second he'd break…

"Fine," Kouji sighed in a joking manner, rolling his eyes playfully, smiling as he released his love's ear. He went back to simply resting his chin on top of the other's head, letting out a content breath before closing his navy blue eyes. The two males swayed in irregular patterns for a moment, but it didn't take long before the ravenette set down his feet firmly upon the porch floor to slow and steady the motions of the bench swing. He could only tolerate so much before he had to make it stop. "What's on your mind?" Kouji inquired curiously, opening his eyes again to look down at a face he could barely see through brown cowlicks.

Thinking, Takuya glanced over to where the mejiro once was, eyes softening as he stared at the branch. What was on his mind? His dreams, the questions they asked but hid away when the comfort of darkness was not there to assure him the worst, weren't that bad. Now though, the night was there and whispering 'do it' over and over, and after all of this, the brunette knew he had to know. It was no longer a matter on his mind, but a matter on his heart and need in his thoughts.

"Uhm, Kouji…?" he began quietly, and then blinked at the meekness of his own voice. Coughing, he cleared his voice before deciding it was ready to speak. Meanwhile, the other's brows were knitted in concern from the brunette's unusual tone.

"Yeah? What's wrong?" Kouji questioned, concern lurking through every syllable of his words. One hand reached up from its grasp around the brunette's small waist, pressing the back of his pale hand against a tan forehead, above confused eyes. "Do you not feel well?"

"I'm fine," Takuya assured the other, gently pushing away the hand. Turning the best he could to face the other, he tilted his head. Reaching up one hand of his own, he slowly ran one finger down Kouji's face. Stopping, he rested the palm of his hand on the other's cheek. He felt the other softly lean his face against his fingers, and smiled. "But there's something I have to know," he began.

"What?" Kouji asked in a whisper, waiting patiently for the question. The other was all right; he was assured of that much. He own hand now freed from checking the brunette's temperature, it moved to rest on the tan hand cupping his cheek, which elicited a smile from the other.

"Why are you so… gentle?" Takuya finally asked, and ignored how silly or absurd the question seemed. It was strange enough to get Kouji to blink at him rapidly, obviously confused. He didn't understand, apparently. "Ever since we got together… and a little before that. You were always so cautious, and I don't think I've ever had an injury in relation to you in the slightest since then. Which is really weird, because in the beginning all we ever got into were fistfights," the brunette tried to explain, and got a quiet contemplative silence in return from the other.

"…" Eyes half-lidded, Kouji's eyes darted to the side as he thought, making the blue look like horizontal slits of an ocean at night. Sparkling, but all the more mysterious. An indefinable end to a book that held no logic but was so addictive the brunette could never put it down. Utter silence, an incomprehensible tension that was only felt by one of the two, he waited uneasily for a reply. What with human nature and the constant fear of losing the best thing to ever happen to one, Takuya understandably felt edgy. What if the one person he loved more than anything or anyone else he encountered decided that having a life partner that questioned him wasn't worth it? Or maybe he figured Takuya was right and they'd go back to consistent arguments?

"Because I never…" Kouji whispered finally, catching the brunette's attention straight away. Eyes and mind perked, Takuya listened as he waited for a reason. "Because I never want to lose you," he finished quietly, looking down almost as though ashamed. He closed his eyes, and as Takuya was about to assure him that would never happen, he stopped, seeing the other ready to start again. "My whole life, my parents moved me around from one place to another. All the friends I once bothered to make were no longer my friends because we had to go elsewhere. To live, far away from them. We never kept contact.

Eventually, I just gave up. No reason to hold onto them, I'd just lose them all over again. What was the purpose in trying? Eventually, one day, fate decided I wasn't allowed to be alone. I met all of you… we didn't exactly get along, but we became friends in the end. I even found my brother… heh. It was a strange year indeed. But after all this time, I found people who understood me, people I didn't want to lose no matter what. Then my stepmother got divorced from my father when she found out about Kouichi and I… and how we were separated at birth and it was his idea that got decided in courts. Of all the strange events, she took me to live with Kouichi's mom. We were a family, and I wouldn't move anymore. But even then, all of us began to drift apart…

All of us, except you. You never let us grow away from each other, no matter what differences came up to try and separate what we had." Kouji ceased speaking for a moment, and then smiled softly. "Eventually, I just fell for you… and made a promise." He looked up, blue eyes staring straight into mahogany ones. "You are the one I would never lose. I love you, and sometimes I don't think you realize how much I do. I never want to see you cry because you're sad, because you're hurting… I don't want to see you bleed unnecessarily, or feel any kind of pain," he explained, leaning forward so his forehead touched the brunette's. Slightly surprised by his response, Takuya's hand slackened on the cheek, and pale fingers wrapped around the relaxing fingers to pull them to his mouth before he lightly kissed them. "I don't want you to break. I just want you here, happy and loving me back…" he sighed, holding the brunette's hand to his mouth. Every word that he spoke meant another affectionate kiss on the hand.

"…Kouji, I…" Takuya started, but he honestly didn't know what to say. Hearing Kouji, of all people, speaking his innermost emotions - and so sincerely - turned his face was a soft pink. Suddenly, that ocean of the night wasn't so endless. But it was still as addictive, and was the most well written page-turner he ever had the pleasure of reading. Feeling his heart thump against his ribcage, the brunette settled for the best expression of love his mind could think of. He hugged Kouji tightly, almost clinging to him. "I love you," he murmured softly, cheeks still pink, a small tear trailing down his face. At times emotions were overwhelming, and right now, his feelings for Kouji inside him were ready to explode. At those gentle words, Kouji just smiled and hugged him back. People always have a reason for being so gentle, and not even frozen hearts are free from this.


End file.
